Product Details

• Actors: Joong-Hoon Park, Sung-kee Ahn, Dong-Kun Jang, Ji-Woo Choi, Jae-mo Ahn
• Directors: Myung-se Lee
• Writers: Myung-se Lee
• Format: Color, DVD, Subtitled, NTSC
• Language: English
• Subtitles: Spanish
• Region: Region 1 (U.S. and Canada only. Read more about DVD formats.)
  
• Aspect Ratio: 1.33:1
• Number of discs: 1
• Rating: R (Restricted)
• Studio: Lions Gate
• DVD Release Date: April 17, 2001
• Run Time: 112 minutes
• Average Customer Review: 3.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (10 customer reviews)
• ASIN: B00005A05O
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #59,690 in Movies & TV (See Bestsellers in Movies & TV)
• For more information about "Nowhere to Hide" visit the Internet Movie Database (IMDb)

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com

The most kaleidoscopic crime thriller you'll ever see. Nowhere to Hide is about a team of cops tracking down a murderous drug lord--but the plot is the only ordinary thing about the movie. Nowhere to Hide uses just about every visual trick imaginable: slow motion, rapid-fire editing, different film textures (from gritty black and white to luminous color), freeze-frames, as well as techniques that have only become possible with computers and that are impossible to describe. But the movie has more than visual razzle-dazzle: scenes go off in bizarre directions, the tone shifts radically from hyperviolence to total sentimentality (in one scene, the loose-cannon detective is brutally beating a handcuffed prisoner; moments later, he's as happy as a little boy when his sister gives him a pair of gloves), the characters are outrageously melodramatic. The soundtrack shares this amazing cinematic schizophrenia, featuring light pop songs, shrieking heavy metal, moody Spanish guitar, and soaring classical. The overall effect is dizzying, disorienting, but at the same time giddy and exciting. The closest American equivalent is Charlie's Angels; these are movies that have moved beyond story logic and character development into sheer sensory enjoyment; movies that push action-movie techniques to the point of becoming almost avant-garde, some insane hybrid of John Woo and Jean-Luc Godard. Not to be missed. --Bret Fetzer

Product Description

Studio: Lions Gate Home Ent. Release Date: 09/09/2008 Run time: 90 minutes Rating: R

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars One of the most original Action movies ever come out!, July 13, 2001

By	"hideone" (Wolfeboro, NH United States) - See all my reviews

This film is Lee, myungse's first try at action genre, before he only made drama and romance kinda movies. At his middle of directing career, he finally found something different which was mostly a visual touch. It is not like an American film, it had no good plots, but the raw feeling and erie images are working at their best. You will remember some scenes; they won't go away easily from your brain. All I can say is that you will see something new and unique, and that is why this movie deserves my rating. (Creativity) Five Stars. Don't miss it!

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Groundbreaking eye candy!, February 2, 2009

By	Kakihara (New York, NY) - See all my reviews

I really do not understand why this film has been getting such a varied response! It may be true that the story is nothing new BUT VISUALLY I would even consider this a work of art - something that I've rarely said about an action film since the original new wave of Hong Kong cinema hit these shores way back (and was in turn, co-opted by Hollywood). Black & white, freeze frame, slo-mo, every trick in the book is utilized by this talented director creating an giddy head-swirling, brain-twisting, "what's next?" effect throughout.
Key scenes: "Holiday" - the set-up for the film's plot bounces between B&W & over-saturated colour. The "businessman" (crime boss) murder & robbery takes place in the rain (as does many of the dramatic high points - in rain or snow) as the melancholy BeeGees' 1st album track plays (back when they were imitating Sgt. Pepper, prior to imitating KC & the Sunshine Band!). "The Duel" - the INCREDIBLE fight scene during a downpour (of course!) is the epic climax of the whole wild ride which is definitely one of the greatest bits of filmmaking I've seen in hundreds of films! In fact, never have I seen as exciting a movie fight with less than a dozen punches thrown - kind of the reverse mirror effect of a Jackie Chan/Sammo Hung/Yuen Biao style hyperactive stunt-fest. This very scene is where "The Matrix" comparison comes from - NOT THE PLOT but the visual style, for those above who seem confused about this point. I've watched this sequence dozens of times and it never fails to amaze! The cherry-bomb on top of this thrill cake.
I can only add the cool acting - especially our anti-hero "thugs with badges" who are armed with baseball bats and tear gas guns and have no moral reservations about beating handcuffed suspects for information and the lineup of bad guys - not only our main villain radiating cool in his sunglasses, trenchcoat & machete, but guys named "Fish Head" & "Meat Head". I also add the startling music selections to the "plus" column & recommend this to anybody that appreciates Asian action cinema at its finest. I'm looking forward to more from this director and just wish there would have been a sequel!

1.0 out of 5 stars Plotless mess., August 27, 2009

By	Robert P. Beveridge "xterminal" (Cleveland, OH) - See all my reviews (TOP 50 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)

Nowhere to Hide (Myung-se Lee, 1999)

A surprisingly large portion of the IMDB discussion board for this movie is full of people arguing over whether the Wachiwski Brothers ripped off pieces of this movie for various and sundry scenes in the Matrix trilogy. I'm not sure about any given scenes, but it certainly seems to me that there is a kind of similarity in the two films by way of them both being piles of dung with unbearably stupid tissue-thin plots that exist for the sole purpose of stringing together uninteresting fight scenes. (But then, you can't fault these movies alone for that sort of thing, not by a longshot.) No, strike that, it's an insult to Nowhere to Hide, which is at least mildly amusing now and again. It's better than The Matrix, but I have to say, that's setting the bar pretty darned low. (In case you haven't figured it out yet, I loathe The Matrix.)

Woo (Joong-hoon Park) and Kim (Dong-Kun Jang) are detectives trying to track down a murderer. Yeah, that's pretty much the entire plot, the simplicity of which leads us to subplot beginnings that die after one scene (not that we care, given that none of these characters is ever developed), silly twists and turns, a whole lot of extraneous explanation, and, of course, lots and lots of fight scenes. Have to fill that time somehow. Aside from Woo having a few snappy one-liners (which is actually kind of out-of-character for him, since the script attempts to paint him as a delusional loser), there's absolutely nothing about this movie worth watching unless fight scenes alone make a movie watchable for you. One to avoid. *